Volume of cash in circulation averages less than 5bn notes
Proportion of payments made using cash averages 40% in past year
The number of banknote pieces circulating is just under 5 billion in the average jurisdiction, data from the Currency Benchmarks 2026 shows.
Banknote pieces average 4.9 billion across 39 jurisdictions. A high income American respondent submitted the largest volume of 55.6 billion, while another high income institution from Africa reported the lowest volume of 6.9 million pieces of banknotes circulating in its country. The median cash volume across central banks is lower than the average, at 756
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